(1) The Devil's Hybrid (D. Winchester)

Chapter Eighty-One

"Any chapped-ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning, but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end, but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There's always gonna be holes. And since it's the ending, it's all supposed to add up to something. I'm telling you, they're a raging pain in the ass" Chuck types on his computer.

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The Impala drives down a road.

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Dean and Castiel are in the Impala, Dean driving.

"Dean" Castiel starts, ready to scold, to talk about what happened with Erika.

"I don't want to talk about it"

"You were a little harsh" Castiel tells him, Dean looks at him and then away.

"Harsh? She'd been...." Dean takes a breath as he turns away. "She betrayed me...us" Dean frowns and looks back at him. "Did you know?"

"I had an idea" Castiel answers, both men remain silent for a few moments before Castiel looks to Dean. "When she first met him, she was still just a child really, and she was lonely, her step-father was abusive and her mother didn't care" Castiel looks out the window. "Lucifer, as he was, was everything that they weren't and he really did care for her" Dean scoffs and shakes his head. "He did love her....why do you think he let you live for so long?" Castiel asks, Dean looks at him. "How many times could he have simply clicked his fingers and killed you? But he didn't....." Dean looks away. "Because of her. When she became a vampire, all those feelings that Lucifer stirred in her, the love and the heartbreak, it was all heightened, can you blame her for being confused?" Castiel looks at him. "She fell in love with you and then he came back, reminding her of her.....life before she was...before her parents cursed her" Castiel looks out the window. "Despite what she has done, she did not deserve what you said to her," Castiel tells Dean who tightens his hold on the wheel, remains quiet, letting it....process. He takes a breath.

"What are you gonna do now?" Dean asks Castiel.

"Return to Heaven, I suppose"

"Heaven?"

"With Michael in the Cage, I'm sure it's total anarchy up there"

"So, what, you're the new sheriff in town?" Dean asks.

"I like that. Yeah. I suppose I am"

"Wow. God gives you a brand-new, shiny set of wings, and suddenly you're his bitch again"

"I don't know what God wants. I don't know if he'll even return. It just... seems like the right thing to do"

"Well, if you do see him, you tell him I'm coming for him next"

"You're angry" Castiel points out. 

"That's an understatement"

"He helped. Maybe even more than we realize"

"That's easy for you to say. He brought you back. But what about Sam? What about me, huh? Where's my grand prize? All I got is my brother in a hole!"

"You are the one that pushed Erika away" Castiel reminds him. "You got what you asked for, Dean. No paradise. No hell. Just more of the same. I mean it, Dean. What would you rather have? Peace or freedom?" When Dean looks over, Castiel is gone.

"Well, you really suck at goodbyes, you know that?" Dean mumbles.

...................

Erika sits on the top of a tombstone in the Cemetery, she stares at the ground. Castiel appears behind her.